Fashion Revolution: A History of the Miniskirt Fashion Revolution A History of the Miniskirt The 1960s was a politically charged decade of revolution and change. Apollo 11 became the first capsule to land on the moon, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law, Vietnam was raging, Beatlemania was sweeping the world, birth control pills hit the market, and a new cult of youth, known as “Youthquake,” had radically taken over many areas of life. In the midst of these dramatic political and cultural changes emerged one of the most enduring and controversial icons of the era: the miniskirt (or mini skirt). Existing, surprisingly, since ancient times, this small and sexy piece of fabric has embodied some of the most fascinating paradoxes of our times as it suggests both empowerment and vulnerability, independence and a desire to please, an attempt to cover and to reveal, maturity and playfulness, and liberation and exploitation. Simultaneously condemned and loved, the miniskirt exploded into the political landscape and had women (and men) suddenly paying attention to what had been hidden years before—a woman’s legs. In the Beginning Was . . .

the Miniskirt High in the mountains in some of Europe’s oldest villages, archaeologists have recently unearthed ancient figurines dating between 5400-4700 B.C. What is remarkable about the figurines is not only their age, but also that the female figurines appear to be beautifully dressed in miniskirts not unlike the fashionable miniskirts of the 1960s, prompting some scholars to speculate that miniskirts were common in the earliest of civilizations (Derbyshire 2007). Interestingly, these figurines are not the only evidence of “ancient miniskirts. For example, an ancient Egyptian fresco shows a female acrobatic dancer wearing a “mini skirt” seemingly made out of cotton that shows off both her hips and her legs (Gandolfi 1989). Early Twentieth-Century Skirts and Sowing the Seeds of Change While the miniskirt may have existed as long as civilization has, it is probably only recently that it has evoked powerful political and cultural implications. In the mid 1800s, women in Europe and America were generally believed to be the weaker and more vulnerable sex.

Politics, business, and physical activity could be dangerous for women, and tight corsets with long, restrictive skirts generally reflected these beliefs (Weaver 2003). Like the miniskirt, the 1920s flapper conveyed an impression of a “new“ woman After WWI, however, advances in women’s emancipation and post-war escapism led to the “flapper” style, an androgynous style with hemlines up to a woman’s knee. After dropping to a more sober calf length during the early 1930s, hemlines rose to just below the knee during WWII, partly due to mandatory fabric rationing during the war (Lehnert 2000). After the end of wartime restrictions on cloth, women were ready for elegance and femininity, and the fashion industry promoted the “New Look” epitomized by Christian Dior. The New Look was mature and sophisticated, with an exaggerated hourglass figure and long, lavish hemlines (Steele 1997).

While the New Look reflected the “best years of our life” consumerism that followed WWII, the “teddy boys” and beatniks of the Beat generation were already sowing the seeds of discontent in 1950s materialism—a discontent that would find its full voice in the 1960s and dramatically change hemlines forever (Reilly 2003). The 1960s and the Politics of the Miniskirt Teenagers Create Their Own Political (and Fashion) Space Before the 1960s, young women had been expected to dress in the style of their mothers, which was usually loosely based on Parisian couture. For example, as late as 1962, a Sears catalog portrayed mothers and daughters as “patchwork pals” who were overjoyed that they are wearing identical dresses. Looking back on the late 1950s, the English designer Sally Tuffin remarked, “There weren’t any clothes for young people at all. One just looked like their mother” (Steele 1997).

However, by the 1960s, youth protests and demands for individual expression revealed that young adults were gaining a self-conscious awareness of themselves as a distinct and unified group that was able to respond to political events in ways that were different from their parents (Cawthorne 1999). Youngsters felt they no longer needed to follow the rules of bourgeois morality and manners, which they saw as hypocritical and based on double standards. As this young political entity gained a voice, they created a space for a new and distinctive fashion that embodied their own political views—not their parents’. The Miniskirt as an Expression and Tool of 1960s Feminism Growing awareness of feminism also paved the way for a different fashion for women. For example, in 1963, American Betty Friedman published The Feminine Mystique which deconstructed the myth of the happy housewife and expressed the desire of women to explore other roles. In addition, the 1960s saw a dramatic increase in women attending universities and entering the workforce, especially with the advent of the “temp agency” which allowed greater flexibility in when and where a woman wanted to work.

This decade also saw laws passed that helped protect and empower both married and divorced women (Diamond and Diamond 2006). Perhaps most important was the advent of the birth control pill, which removed fears of pregnancy and helped usher in the sexual revolution (Cawthorne 1999). The image of a woman was beginning to dramatically shift from being a wife and mother to a young, single, carefree girl proud of her sexuality and confident with her power. The miniskirt would express—and serve as a tool for—this growing woman’s movement. A New Class of Young Consumerism The young generation was indeed growing up rebellious and articulate—and with more money than they’ve ever had before. Young people suddenly became a powerful class of consumers who demanded a fashion that matched the spirit of youth. Consequently, the whole structure of the fashion system was challenged from the youth in the streets as the prestige of “couture” came under attack or, worse, seemed irrelevant (Cawthorne 1999). Upstart designers and boutiques began to cater to a new youth market that could now buy what they wanted—and to older women who began to scramble to look like their daughters.

“The Mother of the Miniskirt” : Mary Quant Mary Quant helped launch the mini skirt revolution in the 1960s When a young upstart British designer named Mary Quant opened her boutique Bazaar in 1955 on King’s Road (a mod and rocker hangout), she was poised to spearhead a fashion revolution. Without any real training in fashion, but with a finger on the pulse of everyday fashion of the street, she represented a distinctive breakaway in fashion. She began to sell clothes that reflected the ideas of the day’s youth and that had nothing to do with established Paris fashion houses (Lehnert 2000). When she raised the hemline of her skirts in 1965 to several inches above the knee, the iconic miniskirt was born. Named after her favorite car, the Mini, the miniskirt was an instant success and epitomized the spirit of London in the mid-60s: free, energetic, youthful, revolutionary, and unconventional (Diamond and Diamond 2006). “The Lord of the Miniskirt” : André Courrèges Quant probably deserves primary but not exclusive credit for the miniskirt.

One French designer also caught the spirit of the era and did for France what Quant did for England (and America)—André Courrèges. Though he began to experiment with hemlines as early as 1961, Courrèges showcased his futuristic, space-age minimalistic dresses which scandalously fell above the knee in late 1964. Like Quant, Courrèges shocked the fashion world. Unlike Quant, he tended to design his skirts with more sophistication and maturity, which, in turn, helped make the miniskirt acceptable to French haute couture (Cawthorne 1999). While Courrèges would later claim that he invented the miniskirt, Quant dismissed his claim, saying “It wasn’t me or Courrèges who invented the miniskirt anyway—it was the girls in the street who did it.” Though the debates between Quant and Courrèges can be amusing and many scholars tend to “skirt” the issue, both Quant and Courrèges appropriated the trends of earlier fashion houses and both took advantage of the greater social changes that were occurring around them.

Regardless of who really “invented” the miniskirt, both Quant and Courrèges deserve credit for revolutionizing and enriching the fashion world with their daring hemlines (Diamond and Diamond 2006). The Mini Goes International Quant’s influential position in the heart of “Swinging London,” Courrèges’ influential position in the more sophisticated Parisian fashion world, and the mini’s easily washable fabric that busy teenage girls were apt to buy helped the miniskirt become a major international trend. The miniskirt’s international acceptance was also boosted when Jean Shrimpton, a popular model, unwittingly caused an international stir in late 1965 when she wore a miniskirt with no stockings, hat, or gloves at the Melbourne Cup Carnival in Australia (Steele 1997). The classic photo of that day showed a dramatic contrast: behind the young, carefree, and beautiful Shrimpton was a group of disapproving middle-aged women dressed in their very proper twin sets and pearls. Shrimpton’s apparent disregard for the bland status quo made a trend-setting fashion statement around the world (in non-communistic and non-Muslim countries, at least).

Accessorizing the Miniskirt It wasn’t just moral outrage that followed the miniskirt, but also fashionable accessories. Accessories included zip-up knee high boots made of stretch vinyl (“kinky” or Courrèges’ “go-go” boots). Tights and pantyhose replaced awkward nylon stockings and became fashion statements in their own right. Actually, tights and pantyhose are what really made the miniskirt possible because they liberated the woman from garter belts and from trying to keep the lines on old-fashioned stockings straight (Olsen 1999). By the late 1960s, miniskirts were being made of see-through fabrics and other loose crotchet materials—which, in turn, made underwear an important new accessory in fashion as well. The “Lolita Look” Twiggy is an iconic “dolly bird“ and the face of the “Swinging 1960s“ Ironically, the full sexuality of the miniskirt during the 1960s also played on a “school-girl” image, and London became recognized as catering almost exclusively to young girls between the ages of 15 and 20.

The models on all the popular catwalks and fashion magazines were typically skinny and androgynous, with an almost prepubescent figure. Even Mary Quant’s husband and partner, Alexander Plunket-Greene, told Rolling Stone in 1987 that “at the time, there was a slightly sort of pedophile thing about it” (Cawthorne 1999). Indeed, the “Lolita look” was everywhere, and the fashionable woman of the 1950s, “all high-heeled and rock-hard tits,” was replaced by a London girl with a childish shape and a “great deal of long legs” (Cawthorne 1999). The most famous model of the era was seventeen-year-old Twiggy (Leslie Hornby), who had a short boyish hairstyle, pale lips, and skinny figure (she was 5′ 7″ and weighed 99 pounds). Even though the miniskirt initially was an expression of individuality, women and girls alike copied Twiggy’s Vidal Sassoon geometric bob and her heavily mascaraed eyelashes in an attempt to achieve her “doe-eyed” little girl look.

When young girls mimicked Twiggy’s fashionably gawky “broken limb” look, they were said to resemble little shop dolls or mannequins (White and Griffiths 2000). Not surprising, dieting fads and eating disorders skyrocketed during this decade (Lehnert 2000). Decline of the Mini in the Late 1960s The miniskirt of the “swinging 60s” lasted until the end of the decade. Throughout, fashion designers created some new and extreme variations in order to keep the excitement alive. For example, Paco Rabanne launched his plastic chain-mail miniskirt in 1966 and then the throw-away minidress. Despite this creativity, the mini eventually fell out of fashion when disillusionment about Vietnam became more widespread and the future looked less positive. With increasingly political despondency, fashion became a little more nostalgic and hemlines fell back down to the ankle in 1969 in a style called the “maxi,” which was the longest hemline since 1914 (Cawthorne 1999).

In addition, while the miniskirt initially was seen as liberating women, the development of terms such as “dolly birds” tended to objectify women, and feminists realized that the miniskirt had great potential to be more exploitive than liberating (Reilly 2003). With the feminist movement in full swing by the early 1970s, minis (whose hemlines had nowhere to go but down, anyway) fell into disfavor. The Late 1970s Punk Revival of the Mini While the miniskirt fell out of fashion in the early 1970s, the punk movement at the end of the decade helped revive the miniskirt, thanks in part to female rock stars such as Debbie Harry (Blondie) who were fond of wearing miniskirts on stage. The punks were motivated by anti-fashion and tried to avoid mainstream trends, which were considered bourgeois, bland, and over-indulgent. Influenced by punk designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, whose shop SEX sold the fashion, the mini was reincarnated in black leather and PVC.

The mini was also now often worn with ripped fishnet tights and took on a slightly “trashy” overtone that reflected the “whatever” attitude (Cawthorne 1999). In an ironic twist of fashion, once the punk look was picked up by designers, the punk movement’s anti-establishment edge became mainstream itself. 1980s and 1990s: The Corporate Miniskirt The miniskirt was part of the power suit trend in the 1980s and early 1990s The 1980s and early 1990s heralded a return to a more womanly figure in contrast to the adolescent androgyny of the 1960s. Rather than disappearing, however, the miniskirt was incorporated into the new, big-shouldered, “power” business suit for women, either in traditional pinstripes or jewel-colored wools (Cawthorne 1999). Popular characters in TV sitcoms such as Carrie in Sex in the City and Heather Locklear in Melrose Place helped the miniskirt appear sexy—and smart (Diamond and Diamond 2006).

Miniskirts were no longer considered appropriate only for teenagers, but they also became a power statement for sophisticated, long-legged, thirty-something career women who were in total control of their single life. Mini Skirts around the World For the most part, the miniskirt has been accepted in the Western world; however, not all countries and cultures embraced the short skirt. Inmany African countries, the miniskirt was seen not only as a corrupting influence of the West but alsoof the modern world. For example, in Tanzania in 1968, at least one barmaid was stoned by a mob that supposedly disapproved of the shortness and tight fit of her miniskirt (Ross 2008), and politicians argued that the spread of AIDS would be halted if women would stop wearing miniskirts (“It’s in Our Hands”). And just this year, a strict Muslim father hired hitmen to kill his 21-year-old daughter because she refused to stop wearing miniskirts. After he paid the gangsters the equivalent of about $3,000, they kidnapped and shot her in the head on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, Russia (“Daughter Killed”).

Twenty-first Century Miniskirts While the miniskirt has been met with disapproval and even violence, the tiny skirt shows no signs of disappearing. On the contrary, the miniskirt is still heavily featured on Western catwalks and in fashion magazines—and it is often shorter than ever. The phone company Samsung even introduced a new cell phone in 2008 called the “Miniskirt Season 2” which, while looking nothing like a miniskirt, is targeted toward women who like to “Talk, Play, Love” (Evans 2008). The miniskirt—variously known as the “micro-mini,” “pelmet,” or “bondage” skirt—continues to occupy a fascinating and paradoxical space in the fashion world as it teasingly attempts to cover and reveal at the same time. In all of its contradictions and reinventions, the miniskirt still provokes, challenges, and demands attention from both men and women alike. -- Posted May 25, 2009 Lehnert, Gertrude. 2000. A History of Fashion in the 20th Century. Cologne, Germany: Konemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.

Olsen, James Stuart. 1999. Historical Dictionary of the 1960s. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press Group. Reilly, Edward J. 2003. The 1960s. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press Group. Ross, Robert. 2008. Clothing: A Global History. Boston, MA: Polity. Steele, Valerie. 1997. Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now. New Haven, CT: Yale University. Weaver, Janice. 2003. From Head to Toe: Bound Feet, Bathing Suits, and Other Bizarre and Beautiful Things. Toronto, Canada: Tundra Books. White, Nicola and Ian Griffiths. 2000. The Fashion Business. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. The 1960s Mini Skirt Fashion History - Mary Quant . 1960s Talent Talent was the prerequisite to success in the 1960s. For the first time ever in any fashion era, the young became the leaders of fashion.

They led with new and radically innovative fashion styles, with little girl woman androgynous looks for women that swept away the sophisticated sweater girls of the early sixties. The picture of Twiggy in the header defines her as the epitome of a sixties baby doll woman. Fifties Fashion Hangs on until 1966 In the 21st century it's easy to associate all 1960s fashion with short skirts, but the short skirt was not really worn by many until 1966 and not nationwide until 1967. Just as in the 1920s for half a decade clothes still showed signs of belonging to the late fifties. The fore runner of the mini dress the straight shift, which had developed from the 1957 sack dress , was still well below the knee. In the early sixties, pleated skirts set on a hip yoke basque were worn with short sleeved over blouses which were cut not unlike the shell tops of today. Straight skirts had front and back inverted pleats called kick pleats and were ideal for doing the twist dance craze as they allowed the knee to move freely.

Straight sweater dresses in lambswool or the synthetic acrylic variety called Orlon were worn belted with waists nipped in became fashionable. Pencil skirts were still worn with sweaters or even back to front cardigans that had been pressed super flat. Before the days of tumble driers many women lay their washed rung out knitwear in paper tissue and then brown paper. They put it to dry under a carpet for two days. When it was removed from the tissue, the footsteps that had pounded over the knit gave it a flat dry cleaned as new appearance. Laundering of delicates could still be a problem, but everything changed when mass produced synthetic garments arrived. ï¿½ï¿½ Mary Quant and the Mini Skirt By 1966 Mary Quant was producing short waist skimming mini dresses and skirts that were set 6 or 7 inches above the knee. It would not be right to suggest she invented the fashion mini skirt. In 1965 she took the idea from the 1964 designs by Courrï¿½ges and liking the shorter styles she made them even shorter for her boutique Bazaar.

She is rightly credited with making popular a style that had not taken off when it made its earlier debut. Quant found London girls seeking newness only too willing to try her new daring short mini skirt. The fashion trend took off because it was so different and to wear it well you had to be youthful to get away with an outfit that was so controversial, particularly among adults. The Quant style was soon known as the Chelsea Look. You are reading an original 'The 1960s Mini Skirt' fashion article by Pauline Weston Thomas at © Right - The length of a typical late sixties short mini skirt. The shapes Quant designed were simple, neat, clean cut and young. They were made from cotton gabardines and adventurous materials like PVC used in rain Macs. They almost always featured little white girly collars. The Mid-1960's Hairstyle Left - The five point hairstyle that says 1960s. Mary Quant also sported a sharply cut geometric hairstyle. One of the most famous and favoured cuts of the era was the 5 point cut by Vidal Sassoon. The hairstyles and the short mine skirts and min dresses made the mid and late sixties fashion look.

Right - Provincial more bouffant variations of the asymmetric cut fringe circa 1968. The Unsung Mini Skirt Inventor - John Bates John Bates was one of the most influential British designers of the 1960s. Ernestine Carter the fashion historian thought him the unsung inventor of the mini skirt. His mini dresses were the shortest, had the barest midriffs and the models wore the least undergarments - he preferred a bra-less silhouette. In 1959 he had set up the Jean Varon label and later a label under his own name. His influence in the sixties was such that he dressed Diana Rigg in The Avengers series. Other celebrities of the day such as Twiggy, Sandie Shaw, Jean Shrimpton and Dusty Springfield all wore his fashion designs. But so did the masses as he also designed for important key department stores in the UK. John Bates has never been given enough credit for his role in the rise of the mini skirt. The facts are that John Bates was making shorter skirts long before others. But Mary Quant was the facilitator of this novel idea who was really noticed.

She got the mini skirt out among trendy young girls about town and it soon became copied and popular everywhere. Quant was copied everywhere and another famous name of the sixties was Barbara Hulanicki of Biba. Biba of course was a sixties hit with girls who loved fashionable and funky looks at a value price. That Was The Week That Was ...(v4r) The London TV Saturday night programme 'That Was The Week That Was', watched by half the UK nation had some time earlier shown a model wearing a dress with a belt that enabled the model to lift the dress up showing the possible various shorter lengths that designers were forecasting hemlines would rise to in the next six months. The audience laughed and gasped and viewers across Britain tittered, but within less than a year the shorter length was firmly established with under twenties and soon after their mothers too began wearing a short mini skirt. Typical of the era the opening lines of the show were 'that was the week that was, it's over let it go...' It was typical of the 1960's attitude of let's get on with the future, making it a very fast moving decade in fashion, lifestyles, innovations and morals.

The fashion mini skirt became one of the icons that symbolized this era. You are reading an original 'The 1960s Mini Skirt' fashion article by Pauline Weston Thomas at © Death of Stockings What made the mini really acceptable was the introduction of pantyhose known mostly today as tights. It was hard to wear a mini dress with stockings and feel confident, but with tights there was protection from the elements and no unsightly glimpse of stocking tops. Stockings died in the mid 1960s and were only revived as leg wear in the 1990s or else kept for the bedroom. Pantyhose When tights were first introduced in the 1960s it liberated women from girdles , roll-ons and suspender belts . It's difficult to know which came first the skirt or the tights, but the introduction of seamless stockings had started the tights revolution. What is certain it is unlikely the one could have existed without the other as no groomed young lady ever went out bare legged then. A pair of Wolsey tights cost about ï¿½1 in 1965 and with careful daily washing they could be made to last a month.

Marks and Spencer was soon churning out lower cost versions. Obviously planned obsolescence has been introduced since then for all brands, as most of us now find it difficult to make them last for more than a day or two's wear. Tights in the late 60s were often patterned with arrangements of diamonds or other motifs and a favourite colour of the era was a golden brown called American Tan. Fishnet tights were also popular briefly. Lurex glitter tights in gold or silver were a hit for the Christmas period. ï¿½ 1960s Footwear Lower kitten heels were a dainty alternative to stilettos Pointed toes gave way to chisel shaped toes in 1961 and to an almond toe in 1963. Flat boots also became popular with very short dresses in 1965 and eventually they rose up the leg and reached the knee. A cult for Dr. Scholl clog sandals worn in offices and outdoors was all the rage in the mid to late sixties in the same way that Birkenstocks were popular in the 1990s.

Pinafores and Knits Knitted twin sets were still worn, but often the items were worn as separates. Square, V or round neck pinafore dresses in plain or tartan wool fabrics were teamed with polo neck jumpers or tie neck blouses. Other combinations were burgundy plum pinafores worn with white or mustard blouses. A sleeved variation of the button through version of the pinafore was called a coat dress and it was worn with or without a skinny rib fitting sweater. It was often worn with a half belt at the back waist. All clothes were narrow shouldered and cut in at the armholes to properly reveal the arm and its shoulder joint. Even short sleeve versions were set well into the armscye. Left - Dresses of 1967 with cutaway armholes Baby doll dresses of 1966 were full and flared into tent shapes mostly with cutaway armholes or/and a halter neck. They were made of transparent tulles, lace or chiffons plain or tree bark mounted over a matching lining or could be made of crinkled cotton crepe fabrics.

Lace of all types from Broderie Anglaise to guipure to crochet effects over coloured linings or flesh toned linings were often seen. Black polo neck sweaters made popular by the Beatles cover album were often worn under check pinafore dresses. The dresses were usually solid colours of red or purple wool material. Checks of black and white such as dog or hound's-tooth or Prince of Wales check. Black and white was a sixties combination and was used in op art dresses and block pieced dresses worked in Mondrian style. Black patent accessories complimented all these combinations. One of the easiest ways to get the sixties look was to wear short little coloured gloves with a hole cut out to reveal the back of the hand. The gloves were similar in appearance to golf gloves of today. With the gloves coloured plastic beaded raffia knit bags and plastic coloured bangles and chandelier earrings made of large sequin discs were all high fashion accessories that lasted about 5 years. All of these trend setting outfits and accessories could easily be obtained from Wallis, Richards, Etams, Biba or Chelsea Girl shops. Marks and Spencer did their bit and brought a shorter young junior range to teen girls in an effort to cut the cost.

The range did not have the added on adult purchase tax that clothes had in pre VAT days. You are reading an original 'The 1960s Mini Skirt' fashion article by Pauline Weston Thomas at © O utdoor Clothes Outdoor looks were achieved by using fabrics like wool, Terylene or cotton gabardine, corduroy, leather, suede or mock suede fabrics made up as car coats. Also cheaper alternatives such as padded nylon diamond quilted anoraks or cotton anoraks with toggles and Austrian peasant embroidered braids were quite common. T rousers ...(v4r) The mini dominated fashion and women sometimes needed a practical alternative smarter than jeans that could be worn day or evening. Quite formal trousers worn with a tunic, shirt, skinny rib or matching suit jacket were acceptable in certain work situations and liked as alternative evening wear when made from slinkier materials. Trousers were made from Courtelle jersey, cotton velvet, silky or bulked textured Crimplenes, lace with satin, and Pucci style printed Tricel. Hipster versions were popular and very flared versions developed by the late sixties, with every style ultimately translating into denim jeans.

Its worth noting that the hipsters of the 60s were not quite as low cut along the pelvic line as low rise jeans of 2005. So Many Influences on 1960's Styles Many things influenced fashion in the 1960s. Social mobility, daring fashion photography, easier travel abroad, the Vietnam war, new music of the Beatles and their much copied hairstyles, retro military and ethnic clothes, musicals, pop art and film all played a part. Right - Jackie Kennedy in the early 1960s wearing her trademark pill box hat and three quarter sleeves. Courrï¿½ges clean cut sharp 1960's design. I have already looked at Mary Quant and the role of pantyhose, but other major 60's influences included the trend setting globally photographed Jackie Kennedy. In addition Emilio Pucci's exotic psychedelic beautiful fabric prints, Courrï¿½ges's space age sculptured designs were as important as the fresh approach to fashion as that of Yves St. Laurent. The then youthful designer Yves St.Laurent made a clean forward looking fashion design image with his Mondrian inspired dress. Yves St.

Laurent's much copied Mondrian inspired shift dress. See and buy great 1960s photographs at Rock Around the Clock By the 1960s the Twist, the Shake and the Locomotion ousted the paired dancing couples of earlier generations. Only for the last few dances of the evening was the Smooch allowed for couples to romantically hold each other as they made their play to walk a partner home. Some stalwarts continued to rock and jive and to wear Teddy Boy gear. New Synthetic Yarns in the 1960s Many of the fashions of the 1960s existed because of the fabrics. They introduced new fabric properties and when synthetics were mixed with natural fibres there was improved performance in wear. Some had been invented years earlier in the 1930s and 1940s, but it was only in the 60s that huge production plants for synthetic fibres sprang up globally. In the UK in the 1960s Marks and Spencer was instrumental in bringing Elastomerics from America to their range of bras, corsetry and bathing wear. Other manufacturers and fashion retailers soon followed.

Meanwhile as man made fibres gained a hold, the Yorkshire woollen industry began to contract at an alarming rate. Job losses were inevitable and yet so often the newer man made yarn companies settled in areas where there was already a body of knowledge and a heritage of spinning, knitting or weaving. Du Pont and ICI were the giants of synthetic manufacture producing a wide range of fabrics under trade names relating to Polyamide , Polyesters, Polyurethanes, Polyolefins, and Polyacrylonitriles the polyvinyl derivative. All the fibre bases could be used as bulked or fine yarns dependant on fibre extrusion method and final finishing. The name often related to the country or plant where the fibre was produced for example Enkalon was Irish made nylon whereas Crylor, an acrylic yarn was made in France. Polyamide is nylon. It came under trade names such as Nylon 6, Celon, Enkalon, Perlon, Bri-Nylon, Cantrece and others. Polyester was known variously as Terylene, Dacron, Terlenka, Trevira, Kodel, Diolen, Tergal and Lavsan.

Polyurethane is the generic name of the elastomeric family of stretch fibres like Spandex, Lycra and Spanzelle. All these man made synthetic fibres began to be used in bras, underwear, swimwear and sportswear. Lycra eventually found its way into fabric mixes to aid crease recovery, wearing ease, fit and stretch. Polyvinyl derivatives produce polyacrylonitriles and this includes Orlon, Acrylic, Crylor, Courtelle and Creslan. Modified acrylics such as Dynel and Teklan were first used to make fake furs and fake hair for wigs in the sixties. You are reading an original 'The 1960s Mini Skirt' fashion article by Pauline Weston Thomas at © Read more about 1950s girdles, petticoats, bras and stockings in the 1950s section. Retro 1960s, 1970s, 1980s talk format and music at tonyjamesradio.com Footnote Biba History In 1964 Barbara Hulanicki founded Biba with her husband.

The team developed a small fashion shop in Abingdon Road, Kensington. The original Biba concept was the retail forerunner of low cost value fast fashion today and the type of pieces found in Primark or George at Asda. Biba sold low priced versions of high fashion items particularly the Quant mini skirt. Biba and the Biba style of make up application was also a huge sixties look. The Biba Art Deco store of the 70s was the place to be seen hanging out. After expanding too fast, too soon, there were financial problems at Biba and Dorothy Perkins took a majority stake in the business in 1969. After some corporate machinations Barbara Hulanicki left Biba and the trademark name in 1975. Later the Biba business was sold on again. Meanwhile in the following forty years Barbara Hulanicki has had a successful career in both interiors and fashion and continues to design from barbarahulanickidesign.com As for Biba - in the late C20th decades, other licensees sold products under the Biba name.

The label has a chequered past and after a much heralded fashion revival again in 2006, the trademark fell at the post again and the owner went into administration in the 2008 recession. In 2008 the UK department store House of Fraser acquired the Biba trademark name. In October 2010 after a very successful launch and sell out of some Biba pieces, House of Fraser declared Biba their top selling fashion line. You are reading an original 'The 1960s Mini Skirt' fashion article by Pauline Weston Thomas at © Read more about 1950s girdles, petticoats, bras and stockings in the 1950s section.

See and buy great 1960s photographs at If you like this page then please share it with your friends For related fashion eras of the mid twentieth century click below:- --Link-- History | The miniskirt revolution The miniskirt revolution History In the beginning… Existing, surprisingly, since ancient times, this small and sexy piece of fabric has embodied some of the most fascinating paradoxes of our times as it suggests both empowerment and vulnerability, independence and a desire to please, an attempt to cover and to reveal, maturity and playfulness, and liberation and exploitation. Simultaneously condemned and loved, the miniskirt exploded into the political landscape and had women (and men) suddenly paying attention to what had been hidden years before – a woman’s legs. High in the mountains in some of Europe’s oldest villages, archaeologists have recently unearthed ancient figurines dating between 5400-4700 B.C. What is remarkable about the figurines is not only their age, but also that the female figurines appear to be beautifully dressed in miniskirts not unlike the fashionable miniskirts of the 1960s, prompting some scholars to speculate that miniskirts were common in the earliest of civilizations.

Interestingly, these figurines are not the only evidence of “ancient miniskirts”. For example, an ancient Egyptian fresco shows a female acrobatic dancer wearing a “mini skirt” seemingly made out of cotton that shows off both her hips and her legs. Early twentieth-century skirts While the miniskirt may have existed as long as civilization has, it is probably only recently that it has evoked powerful political and cultural implications. In the mid 1800s, women in Europe and America were generally believed to be the weaker and more vulnerable sex. Politics, business, and physical activity could be dangerous for women, and tight corsets with long, restrictive skirts generally reflected these beliefs. After WWI, however, advances in women’s emancipation and post-war escapism led to the “flapper” style, an androgynous style with hemlines up to a woman’s knee. After dropping to a more sober calf length during the early 1930s, hemlines rose to just below the knee during WWII, partly due to mandatory fabric rationing during the war. During the first part of the 20th century dresses and skirts were long and modest.

The “Roaring Twenties” offered a shocking new look that was really ahead of its time. If you consider that most dresses and skirts were typically worn down to the ankle up until the beginning of the 1920’s. The hemlines of these garments rose to knee length in a matter of a handful of years. The 1960’s…and the politics of the miniskirt It seemed as if ladies suddenly woke up one morning and decided that dresses and skirts should be lifted to new heights. This new approach to dress design turned fashion on its ear and it started a whole new era for women. Not only were women entering the voting booths, they were freeing their legs of cumbersome dresses and skirts as well. By the 1960s, youth protests and demands for individual expression revealed that young adults were gaining a self-conscious awareness of themselves as a distinct and unified group that was able to respond to political events in ways that were different from their parents. Youngsters felt they no longer needed to follow the rules of bourgeois morality and manners, which they saw as hypocritical and based on double standards. As this young political entity gained a voice, they created a space for a new and distinctive fashion that embodied their own political views.

The Miniskirt as an Expression of 1960s Feminism Growing awareness of feminism also paved the way for a different fashion for women. The 1960s saw a dramatic increase in women attending universities and entering the workforce, especially with the advent of the “temp agency” which allowed greater flexibility in when and where a woman wanted to work. This decade also saw laws passed that helped protect and empower both married and divorced women. The image of a woman was beginning to dramatically shift from being a wife and mother to a young, single, carefree girl proud of her sexuality and confident with her power. The miniskirt would express, and serve as a tool for, this growing woman’s movement. The young generation was indeed growing up rebellious and articulate, and with more money than they’ve ever had before. Young people suddenly became a powerful class of consumers who demanded a fashion that matched the spirit of youth. Consequently, the whole structure of the fashion system was challenged from the youth in the streets as the prestige of “couture” came under attack or, worse, seemed irrelevant.

Upstart designers and boutiques began to cater to a new youth market that could now buy what they wanted and to older women who began to scramble to look like their daughters. “The Mother of the Miniskirt” : Mary Quant When a young upstart British designer named Mary Quant opened her boutique Bazaar in 1955 on King’s Road (a mod and rocker hangout), she was poised to spearhead a fashion revolution. Without any real training in fashion, but with a finger on the pulse of everyday fashion of the street, she represented a distinctive breakaway in fashion. She began to sell clothes that reflected the ideas of the day’s youth and that had nothing to do with established Paris fashion houses. When she raised the hemline of her skirts in 1965 to several inches above the knee, the iconic miniskirt was born. Named after her favorite car, the Mini, the miniskirt was an instant success and epitomized the spirit of London in the mid-60s: free, energetic, youthful, revolutionary, and unconventional. “The Lord of the Miniskirt” : André Courrèges Quant probably deserves primary but not exclusive credit for the miniskirt.

One French designer also caught the spirit of the era and did for France what Quant did for England (and America), André Courrèges. Though he began to experiment with hemlines as early as 1961, Courrèges showcased his futuristic, space-age minimalistic dresses which scandalously fell above the knee in late 1964. Like Quant, Courrèges shocked the fashion world. Unlike Quant, he tended to design his skirts with more sophistication and maturity, which, in turn, helped make the miniskirt acceptable to French haute couture. While Courrèges would later claim that he invented the miniskirt, Quant dismissed his claim, saying “It wasn’t me or Courrèges who invented the miniskirt anyway—it was the girls in the street who did it.” Though the debates between Quant and Courrèges can be amusing and many scholars tend to “skirt” the issue, both Quant and Courrèges appropriated the trends of earlier fashion houses and both took advantage of the greater social changes that were occurring around them.

Regardless of who really “invented” the miniskirt, both Quant and Courrèges deserve credit for revolutionizing and enriching the fashion world with their daring hemlines. Quant’s influential position in the heart of “Swinging London,” Courrèges’ influential position in the more sophisticated Parisian fashion world, and the mini’s easily washable fabric that busy teenage girls were apt to buy helped the miniskirt become a major international trend. The “Lolita Look” Ironically, the full sexuality of the miniskirt during the 1960s also played on a “school-girl” image, and London became recognized as catering almost exclusively to young girls between the ages of 15 and 20. The models on all the popular catwalks and fashion magazines were typically skinny and androgynous, with an almost prepubescent figure. The “Lolita look” was everywhere, and the fashionable woman of the 1950s, was replaced by a London girl with a childish shape and a “great deal of long legs”.

The most famous model of the era was seventeen-year-old Twiggy (Leslie Hornby), who had a short boyish hairstyle, pale lips, and skinny figure (she was 5′ 7″ and weighed 99 pounds). Even though the miniskirt initially was an expression of individuality, women and girls alike copied Twiggy’s Vidal Sassoon geometric bob and her heavily mascaraed eyelashes in an attempt to achieve her “doe-eyed” little girl look. When young girls mimicked Twiggy’s fashionably gawky “broken limb” look, they were said to resemble little shop dolls or mannequins. Not surprising, dieting fads and eating disorders skyrocketed during this decade. Decline of the mini in the late 1960s The miniskirt of the “swinging 60s” lasted until the end of the decade. Throughout, fashion designers created some new and extreme variations in order to keep the excitement alive. For example, Paco Rabanne launched his plastic chain-mail miniskirt in 1966 and then the throw-away minidress.

Despite this creativity, the mini eventually fell out of fashion when disillusionment about Vietnam became more widespread and the future looked less positive. With increasingly political despondency, fashion became a little more nostalgic and hemlines fell back down to the ankle in 1969 in a style called the “maxi,” which was the longest hemline since 1914. In addition, while the miniskirt initially was seen as liberating women, the development of terms such as “dolly birds” tended to objectify women, and feminists realized that the miniskirt had great potential to be more exploitive than liberating. With the feminist movement in full swing by the early 1970s, minis (whose hemlines had nowhere to go but down, anyway) fell into disfavor. The late 1970s punk revival of the mini While the miniskirt fell out of fashion in the early 1970s, the punk movement at the end of the decade helped revive the miniskirt, thanks in part to female rock stars such as Debbie Harry (Blondie) who were fond of wearing miniskirts on stage.

The punks were motivated by anti-fashion and tried to avoid mainstream trends, which were considered bourgeois, bland, and over-indulgent. Influenced by punk designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, whose shop SEX sold the fashion, the mini was reincarnated in black leather and PVC. The mini was also now often worn with ripped fishnet tights and took on a slightly “trashy” overtone that reflected the “whatever” attitude. In an ironic twist of fashion, once the punk look was picked up by designers, the punk movement’s anti-establishment edge became mainstream itself. 1980s and 1990s: the “corporate miniskirt” The 1980s and early 1990s heralded a return to a more womanly figure in contrast to the adolescent androgyny of the 1960s. Rather than disappearing, however, the miniskirt was incorporated into the new, big-shouldered, “power” business suit for women, either in traditional pinstripes or jewel-colored wools. Popular characters in TV sitcoms such as Carrie in Sex in the City helped the miniskirt appear sexy, and smart.

Miniskirts were no longer considered appropriate only for teenagers, but they also became a power statement for sophisticated, long-legged, thirty-something career women who were in total control of their single life. For the most part, the miniskirt has been accepted in the Western world; however, not all countries and cultures embraced the short skirt. Inmany African countries, the miniskirt was seen not only as a corrupting influence of the West but alsoof the modern world. Twenty-first century miniskirts While the miniskirt has been met with disapproval and even violence, the tiny skirt shows no signs of disappearing. On the contrary, the miniskirt is still heavily featured on Western catwalks and in fashion magazines, and it is often shorter than ever. The phone company Samsung even introduced a new cell phone in 2008 called the “Miniskirt Season 2” which, while looking nothing like a miniskirt, is targeted toward women who like to “Talk, Play, Love”.

The miniskirt, variously known as the “micro-mini,” “pelmet,” or “bondage” skirt, continues to occupy a fascinating and paradoxical space in the fashion world as it teasingly attempts to cover and reveal at the same time. In all of its contradictions and reinventions, the miniskirt still provokes, challenges, and demands attention from both men and women alike. 1000+ images about 1960's Fashion on Pinterest | Mary quant, Mini skirts and 1960s Forward Yay the 1960's the skirts went up, way up, thanks to Mary Quant and her mini skirt. The ones in this picture look white but are most likely brightly colored, as colors and patterns went as wild as the culture did. See More ModColors Mod Era Designers Models Mod Fashions Early Seventies Bibliography Welcome to the Youthquake! Mod Fashion was introduced to the world of Haute Couture in 1964, although it had been popular on the streets of Britain, and then America, earlier in the decade. Sixties designers brought a youthfulness to haute couture and changed the fashion world forever.

It wasn't until 1967 that Barbie left her couture clothing behind and once again became the "teenage fashion model" she was created to be. Gone were the Cassini "Camelot Era" suit and Dior "New Look" prom gown, the white gloves and pearls. Barbie entered the Mod generation. Mattel designers were finally drawing their influence from fashions that had been showing on the catwalks for more than three years...the contemporary, ready-to-wear styles that were currently in demand. Here are but a dozen of the many sixties designers whose influence I recognize in the Mod Era Barbie fashions. John Bates - John Bates designed those fabulous catsuits and Mod ensembles for Diana Rigg on her hit television series "The Avengers." Perhaps his most famous design is an A-line dress with the midriff cut out and replaced by sheer netting. Voted 1965's Dress of the Year, it can be seen at the Museum of Costume in Bath, England. Biba (Barbara Hulanicki) - Barbara Hulanicki opened the legendary Biba boutique in London in 1964.

Biba stocked the "total look" in which shoes, tights, and other accessories coordinated with the clothes. Biba clothing was extremely inexpensive, which fit perfectly the budgets of many young women. Her earlier designs reflected the youthful styles of the Mod movement.... short, in bright colors and pastels (her first dress was a pink gingham). But, by the late Sixties, her designs changed to the nostalgic 1930s look in darker mulberries, plums, etc., with longer hemlines. Marc Bohan - Marc Bohan succeeded Yves Saint Laurent as head of the House of Dior. Bohan brought the House of Dior into the Sixties during the early years of the Mod movement. Under his leadership the House of Dior created youthful lines of clothing such as Dior Sport, as well as bringing simpler construction to the regular line of Dior fashions. In the late Sixties he explored the ethnic styles of fashions that were becoming increasingly popular, with exotic prints and more fluid shapes. He continued to head the House of Dior until the Eighties. Pierre Cardin - Pierre Cardin was a French couturier who adopted Mod styles of clothing in the Mid Sixties.

As early as 1964 his designs became more relaxed, and began to resemble the youthful styles of Quant and other young British designers. But after Courrèges made Mod fashionable among the couture set, Cardin's designs also became "out there." He, with Courrèges, was responsible for what became known as the "Space-Age Look," with futuristic designs and helmet-like hats. Ossie Clark - Clark started designing clothing for Quorum, a popular London boutique in the early Sixties, joining the company full-time in 1966. He designed way-out clothing such as hot pants, gypsy dresses and maxi coats. Many of the fabrics he used were designed by his wife Celia Birtwell. Andre Courrèges - Courrèges was the designer responsible for bringing the Mod Look to high fashion. Originally a designer for the master of haute couture Balenciaga, he opened his own house in 1961. His early designs were very much like other couturiers, with well-tailored, mature and conservative styles.

However, in the fall of 1964 when he introduced his spring '65 line, his models walked onto the runway in white, geometrical dresses with hemlines above the knees. Go-go boots and helmet-like hats accompanied them. He is credited with inventing the miniskirt, but in reality he just brought it to couture fashion, thus helping to make the mini universal. Rudi Gernreich - Gernreich, like Mary Quant, was a free spirit in the fashion world. Although he was more of a high-end designer than the youthful Mod designers, he was not stuffy like the French and Italian couture designers of the Sixties. Gernreich embraced simple lines and youthful styles, and designed many innovative, and sometimes controversial designs. In 1964, he made headlines with his topless bathing suit, and later a topless dress. He spearheaded the Total Look movement, where the hose and shoes would match the outfit. He turned to many ethnic styles of dress for ideas, such as East Indian or Oriental styles. In the late 70s, Gernreich invented the thong bikini. See my Moffitt page for a look at his designs.

Thea Porter - Thea Porter: bohemian, advocate of flower power and free-thinker..... Porter started designing clothing in 1964 after running a shop that sold antique carpets and textiles. Her designs were inspired by Eastern and Middle-Eastern textiles before they became widely popular in the late Sixties. She opened a store in New York in 1968, and one in Paris in the early Seventies. She promoted the ethnic and gypsy styles of clothing popular in the early Seventies. Emilio Pucci - Pucci had not originally intended to be a fashion designer. He had spent many years in America and Italy continuing his education, eventually receiving a doctorate in political science. Pucci started his career in fashion after he was photographed on the ski slopes of Italy wearing ski pants of his own design. The magazine Harper's Bazaar, who had photographed these pants, asked him to design winter clothing for women which it published and which were later sold in stores in New York. Pucci became a sportswear designer in the Fifties, and his vibrant colors first showed up on the ski slopes.

But, he is most famous for his designs of the 60s, notably his psychedelic swirled textile patterns used in dresses and capri pants, and his space-age designs such as Braniff flight attendants' outfits. See my own Braniff uniforms . Mary Quant - Mary Quant is credited with many fashion innovations of the Sixties, including the miniskirt, the trouser suit, PVC rainwear, and hot pants. She opened her boutique, Bazaar, in London in 1955 with her husband Alexander Plunket-Greene, who was as daring and irreverent as she was. She started designing her own clothes a year later because she could not find the kind of clothes she wanted to stock in her shop. Her clothes were whimsical and simple in design. She soon branched out into hosiery and cosmetics. Her popularity continued into the early Seventies, but as fashions changed Quant shifted her focus to items like housewares and home linens. Her skin care and makeup lines continue to be popular today. Paco Rabanne - Paco Rabanne began his career designing plastic jewelry for Dior, Balenciaga and Givenchy before turning to fashion design.

These jewelry designs were a prelude to the fashions for which he became famous. In 1965 he designed a dress made of plastic discs linked together like chain mail. He designed dresses made of metal squares, discs or triangles joined together, in long or short lengths, and used unusual materials such as crinkled paper and aluminum. He also designed costumes for films such as Casino Royale and Two for the Road. A futuristic designer, he created the space-age costumes for the 1968 film Barbarella. Yves Saint Laurent - Yves Saint Laurent's first collection, designed for the House of Dior in 1958, introduced the Trapeze dress. This was a mid-length prelude to the A-line dresses of the mods, but with exquisite tailoring. In 1965 YSL started a Pop Art movement in couture fashion when he created his "Mondrian" dress, based on Mondrian's painting "Broadway Boogie Woogie". (Remember the Partridge Family's bus?) Like Courreges and Cardin, Saint Laurent created daring, contemporary designs that reflected the sixties youthful movement in fashion.

The ï¿½Fantasyï¿½ of the Mini [Paris] - As if to bring a little cheer amid the global gloom, the mini-skirt, born in the peaceful prosperous 1960s, is poised for a comeback. "The language of the 1960s is back with the mini, the colours, the simpler pared-down silhouette that emerged during those carefree and prosperous times," said Pamela Golbin, a curator at the Louvre's Fashion and Textile museum in Paris. "Images from those years allow today's designers to escape from the current economic and political reality". [AFP] 1960s Fashion - The Mini, Skirts and Dresses 1960s Fashion 1960s Fashion – Mini Skirt and Dresses 1960s Fashion – Mini Skirt and Dresses The 1960s marked a very important stage in the evolution of twentieth-century fashion for two reasons: because the youth market demanded and got their own styles; and because the notion of anything goes in fashion became the norm. The mini skirt or dress was at the epicenter of this evolution. Mini’s created a revolution and turned 1960’s fashion on its head.

By the late sixties no boundaries remained for the designers as to what could be done with the mini. Click for more Twiggy photos Women were liberating themselves from the uncomfortable and matronly apparel of the fifties. Armed with synthetic materials, new female designers and ready to wear affordable designs the mini was ready to explode onto the sixties market. Aided by the invention and commercialization of pantyhose or tights, women were proudly showing off not only their legs but their freedom as well. Although French designer Courreges claims to have invented the mini, there’s no question that Mary Quant working out of her small King’s Road, London boutique popularized and gave mass market appeal to the mini. Mary’s designs were simple usually using a basic A-line design for many of her mini-dresses. at left: Mary Quant design mini dress After the successes of Quant, Betsy Johnson, Barbara Hulanicki and other young female 1960’s designers, all of the major Fashion Houses followed suit. The likes of Chanel, Dior and Y’ves Saint Laurent were soon offering the shorter mini styles in their couture lines.

Not as risque as what was coming out of swinging London it definitely emphasized the importance of the mini skirt as a new style icon. Although the even more liberating pants suit style of clothing would gain popularity in the early 1970’s and eventually edge the mini skirt out of vogue, the remnants of that 1960’s fashion revolution are still visible in today’s clothing. They’re Back in Stock! ModCloth Styles Are Back for an Encore! Find Faves You Missed the First Time. Fashion 60s Miniskirt facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Miniskirt Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group, Inc. Miniskirt The miniskirt was introduced in 1965 at the fashion show of French designer André Courreges (1923–). He felt that the design of women's clothes was not keeping up with the modern trends of the 1950s and 1960s and wanted to introduce a look that was modern, streamlined, and easy.

His miniskirts were A-line skirts, narrow at the waist and wider at the hem, that ended four inches above the knee. The audience at Courreges's show greeted his new designs in shocked silence, but it would not be long before fashion critics and women themselves embraced the exciting modern look. Meanwhile, in London, fashion designer Mary Quant (1934–) also began to sell a new look for the modern woman. In 1955 Quant had opened a London boutique called Bazaar in which she sold designer clothes that could be worn by the average person, not just fashion models. Shortly after Courreges had revealed his line of clothes, Quant introduced her own miniskirt, a tightly fitted skirt with an even shorter hemline, up to the middle of the thigh. Quant's miniskirt became part of a new "mod" style, named after the reigning fashion among British youth in the 1960s. Courreges and Quant both paired miniskirts with flat white boots and geometric prints, and celebrities like British model Twiggy (1946–) and French actress and sex symbol Brigitte Bardot (1934–) popularized the new look.

Soon the new short skirts were seen on such respectable figures as American first lady Jacqueline Kennedy (1929–1994). Over the years minis kept getting shorter, becoming the micromini and even the micro-micro. The average woman did not wear the most extreme styles, but the miniskirt did begin a trend of shorter skirts and a freer, more relaxed style for women. Rather than being expected to keep themselves covered up, modern women of the 1960s were presented in a style that was bold, sexy, and fun. Hemlines have gone up and down several times since 1965, and the miniskirt has been reintroduced several times, notably in the 1980s when singer Madonna 's (1958–) short skirts popularized the mini again among young women. FOR MORE INFORMATION

Question: Which fashion designer created the miniskirt in 1964?
Answer: Mary Quant